The Dallas Mavericks could've had Jalen Brunson on a four-year, $55 million extension back during the 2021-22 season, but instead of signing Luka Doncic's former No. 2 option to a bargain, Mark Cuban's franchise passed on the guard, traded for Kyrie Irving, and then executed a sign-and-trade with the Boston Celtics for Grant Williams for the same price Brunson would've cost.
Same franchise that gave Grant Williams the same contract 💀 https://t.co/0Wz1JCqnko pic.twitter.com/Sh1exKwhZr
— Jays Enthusiast (@gReenbean_26) February 21, 2024
Brunson recently went on "All The Smoke" with Stephen Jackson and Matt Barnes to detail his story.
"I wanted to stay there, I thought I would be there for a long time, and I liked my role there," Brunson told Jackson and Barnes (h/t CBS Sports). "It's funny because my agent was like, 'You can do so much, you can get more, you can get more.' I'm saying, 'Well, I want to be safe. I'm not trying to gamble right now. This is not something you really gamble with if it's out there.' But [the Mavericks] were like, 'We want to see where we're at by like 20, 25 games into the season.' We were like, 'All right, well, if you're not going to do it, I kind of don't want to do it until after the season. I'm not trying to think about this [during the season].'Â
"So there was a period where Luka [Doncic] went out and I started to start. I was playing really well, I think I was averaging like 20 and like six, maybe, whatever. It was about that 20-, 25-[game] mark. And so we went back, we're like, 'Hey, if the deal is there, we're thinking about it.' Like, 'I'll do it, like right now.' Still, it was no. It wasn't a hard no -- it was just like, 'We want to see, we want to see.'"
Mavs would be contender right now if they re-signed Jalen Brunson instead of adding former Boston Celtics Kyrie Irving and Grant Williams
Brunson's lack of a deal with Dallas turned out to be one of the more significant butterfly effects in the NBA. Had he re-signed with the Mavs, it's possible the New York Knicks wouldn't be in a position to threaten the Boston Celtics in the Eastern Conference right now.
And it's possible Dallas would be among the top teams in the Western Conference, instead of a team in danger of having to win a Play-In game to reach the postseason. Eh, let's be real: the Mavs would 100% be a contender if Brunson never left and was signed to a pact that's at a role player's rate.
These are the kinds of mistakes stars reference in the future explaining why they left the franchise that drafted them.